News

IT for government and public sector

• June 11, 2021 11 Jun'21

  UK promises tougher line on cyber crime

  Speaking ahead of the G7 Summit, foreign secretary Dominic Raab says the UK is ready to take on cyber criminals and other malicious actors wherever they may be

• June 11, 2021 11 Jun'21

  UK and US to develop tech and science partnership

  Partnership will explore collaboration in areas such as innovation, research, defence, security, intelligence and law enforcement, as well as making sure technology is ‘used as a force for good’

• June 10, 2021 10 Jun'21

  Central government spent £4.4bn on IT in 2020

  Tussell report finds that central government increased tech spend during the Covid-19 pandemic, and HM Revenue and Customs is the biggest spender

• June 10, 2021 10 Jun'21

  Risk data shows UK energy sector most vulnerable to cyber attack

  New report compiled by insurance firm Hiscox reveals the state of cyber preparedness in the UK and beyond

• June 09, 2021 09 Jun'21

  FBI arrests distributors accused of selling An0m encrypted phones to crime groups

  Working with overseas law enforcement, the FBI has arrested eight people and named a further 13 accused of distributing An0m phones to organised crime groups

• June 08, 2021 08 Jun'21

  Did government allow Post Office to sack forensic accountants to cover up Horizon scandal?

  Whatever the Post Office told government about its decision to sack investigators examining subpostmaster prosecutions for theft could identify if the government was part of a cover-up

• June 08, 2021 08 Jun'21

  CIO interview: Tom Read, chief executive, Government Digital Service

  The new chief at GDS has outlined a three-year strategy for the organisation, and tells Computer Weekly he wants to get back to the core focus of building products for use across government

• June 07, 2021 07 Jun'21

  Police raids around world after investigators crack An0m cryptophone app in major hacking operation

  Police in 16 countries carried out raids on after Australian Police and the FBI cracked an encrypted An0M communications network used by crime groups

• June 07, 2021 07 Jun'21

  EU privacy chief investigates use of US cloud services

  Use of Amazon and Microsoft’s cloud services by public sector bodies in the European Union is being scrutinised by the bloc’s privacy watchdog

• June 07, 2021 07 Jun'21

  MoD launches digital strategy

  The Ministry of Defence aims to invest an additional £1.6bn in digital over the next 10 years, and plans to establish a federated ecosystem of digital innovators and developers to ensure continuous progress

• June 07, 2021 07 Jun'21

  Bank of England calls for feedback on digital currencies

  The UK financial services regulator is calling for feedback from organisations, including tech firms, on the use of cryptocurrency

• June 07, 2021 07 Jun'21

  EC launches digital identity framework

  The European digital identity will be available to citizens, residents and businesses across the EU, and member states will offer digital identity wallets on a national level

• June 07, 2021 07 Jun'21

  NCSC updates schools ransomware guidance amid surge

  The National Cyber Security Centre says it is dealing with a renewed surge of ransomware attacks targeting schools, colleges and universities

• June 07, 2021 07 Jun'21

  IBM pushes back against US government data requests

  Technology giant IBM says the US government has ‘no jurisdiction’ to request data from its European entities

• June 04, 2021 04 Jun'21

  UK immigration exemption in Data Protection Act found unlawful

  Court of Appeal rules immigration exemption unlawful, but further hearings will follow to decide what remedies must be put in place

• June 04, 2021 04 Jun'21

  Secrecy around EncroChat cryptophone hack breaches French constitution, court hears

  French lawyers claim that investigators are unlawfully withholding details of a cryptophone hacking operation in a case that could impact UK prosecutions

• June 03, 2021 03 Jun'21

  Swedish university is behind quantum computing breakthrough

  Chalmers University of Technology simplifies the process of measuring the temperatures of quantum computers during complex calculations

• June 03, 2021 03 Jun'21

  Royal Navy trials AI during exercise in Scotland

  The Royal Navy is testing two different artificial intelligence systems to see how they would perform against a supersonic missile threat

• June 01, 2021 01 Jun'21

  Government on the hunt for Advanced Research and Invention Agency CEO

  First CEO of the high-risk, high-reward research agency will be in charge of shaping the research, culture and setup of the organisation and define its strategy to identify and fund ground-breaking science and technology

• June 01, 2021 01 Jun'21

  NHS trust’s Pioneer data platform joins up care delivery and improves outcomes

  University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust aims to improve patient care by bringing together anonymised health data from different care settings to better understand the patient journey

• June 01, 2021 01 Jun'21

  Post Office scandal public inquiry finally begins after chances to address problems were ignored

  The Post Office Horizon scandal inquiry begins with subpostmaster campaign group waiting for full details before committing its support

• May 28, 2021 28 May'21

  Privacy experts concerned over NHS data collection plans

  Security and data privacy experts warn NHS Digital that its data collection plans could increase risk and cause a public backlash

• May 27, 2021 27 May'21

  BCS demands reform to rules on computer evidence following Post Office Horizon scandal revelations

  Professional IT body wants changes to how computer evidence is used in court in the wake of the Post Office case

• May 27, 2021 27 May'21

  Loss of 150,000 police records made worse by management failures

  The loss of 150,000 records from a number of national policing systems was caused by a human coding error, but made worse by process and management failures

• May 27, 2021 27 May'21

  Uber signs collective bargaining agreement with GMB

  Uber and GMB sign “landmark” collective bargaining agreement with no ability to negotiate on earnings, attracting criticism from smaller unions that it lacks teeth

• May 27, 2021 27 May'21

  Singapore deploys drones to monitor reservoir water quality

  Singapore’s national water agency PUB is deploying autonomous drones at six reservoirs to monitor water quality and other activities to improve operational efficiency

• May 27, 2021 27 May'21

  NGOs file complaints against Clearview AI in five countries

  Privacy and human rights organisations have asked data protection regulators in the UK, France, Austria, Italy and Greece to investigate controversial facial recognition company Clearview AI

• May 26, 2021 26 May'21

  Department for Education’s e-learning unpreparedness widens inequality among students

  Department is ‘surprisingly resistant’ to a lessons-learned exercise based on findings during Covid, says Public Accounts Committee report

• May 26, 2021 26 May'21

  Google offers free tech skills training to UK jobseekers

  Online training in areas such as IT support and UX design will be available through the Department for Work and Pensions

• May 26, 2021 26 May'21

  ‘It's a good day when we refer a case,’ CCRC tells MPs during review of Post Office prosecutions

  Criminal Cases Review Commission will not allow pressure on its resources to prevent subpostmasters seeking a review of their criminal convictions

• May 25, 2021 25 May'21

  GCHQ bulk interception programme breached privacy rights, Strasbourg court rules

  European Court of Human Rights finds that the UK’s bulk surveillance programme breached citizens’ privacy rights

• May 25, 2021 25 May'21

  IR35: MPs denied vote to amend Finance Bill to ‘curb or kill’ umbrella companies

  MPs were denied the opportunity to vote in favour of amending the incoming Finance Bill to ‘curb or kill’ umbrella companies, prompting industry watchers to double down on calls for regulation

• May 25, 2021 25 May'21

  UK startups lack gender diversity in senior technical roles

  Women account for about 2-3% of engineering and technology directors in startups and scaleups, says report

• May 24, 2021 24 May'21

  UK to have digital border by end of 2025

  Home secretary’s plans for immigration reform include border crossing technology, online immigration status service and electronic travel authorisation system

• May 24, 2021 24 May'21

  Government pumps £166.5m into green technology

  The government funding will be awarded to innovators, businesses and academics across the UK to develop technologies in carbon capture, greenhouse gas removal and hydrogen

• May 24, 2021 24 May'21

  IR35: MPs urged to back ‘curb or kill’ umbrella company-focused Finance Bill amendments

  Two amendments to the incoming Finance Bill that have the potential to ban the use of umbrella companies are being voted on by MPs in the House of Commons today

• May 23, 2021 23 May'21

  Innovation and skills at the heart of CBI report

  The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) wants an inclusive and innovative economy, with increased research and development (R&D) investment and better digital intensity and adoption, particularly among SMEs

• May 21, 2021 21 May'21

  NHS Education for Scotland defends 'decade-long' public cloud deal with AWS

  The training arm of NHS Scotland has come under fire from members of the public sector IT supplier community over its decision to award a 10-year cloud contract to AWS

• May 21, 2021 21 May'21

  Government Digital Service sets out three-year strategy

  The new GDS strategy up to 2024 includes a focus on making Gov.uk a single, trusted source of information, joining up services, and creating a pan-government digital identity solution

• May 20, 2021 20 May'21

  UK regulators commit to closer cooperation on digital economy

  Two UK regulators have issued a joint statement and signed a memorandum of understanding on the need for closer collaboration on digital markets

• May 20, 2021 20 May'21

  Government sets out implementation plan for genomics strategy

  The 2021-22 implementation plan for government’s 10-year Genome UK strategy includes improving diversity of genomics data, rolling out whole genome sequencing to rare diseases patients, and delivering a proof of concept for a next-generation ...

• May 20, 2021 20 May'21

  Subpostmaster campaign group to meet Post Office scandal inquiry chair

  The subpostmaster campaign group JFSA refused to cooperate with initial inquiry because it ‘lacked teeth’, but is now willing to talk after it was put on a statutory footing

• May 20, 2021 20 May'21

  UK government publishes framework on automated decision-making

  The framework focuses on making the use of algorithms and automated decision-making systems within the public sector more ethical, transparent and accountable

• May 19, 2021 19 May'21

  ‘Nothing off the table’ in statutory Post Office scandal inquiry

  The government confirmed that the inquiry into the Post Office Horizon IT scandal will be given statutory status and wider scope

• May 19, 2021 19 May'21

  India’s HCL to hire 1,000 tech professionals in the UK

  Indian IT suppliers set to create thousands of IT jobs in the UK, which supports their intention to have more staff based closer to customers

• May 19, 2021 19 May'21

  UK tech sector grows tenfold in 10 years

  Massive expansion of the UK tech sector since 2010 has seen venture capital investment and the number of unicorn businesses increase by factor of 10

• May 18, 2021 18 May'21

  Legacy data and IT issues ‘laid bare’ during Covid-19, says NAO

  The pandemic has exposed challenges with legacy data and IT systems in government, and has made the government response more challenging, says the National Audit Office

• May 18, 2021 18 May'21

  Post Office Horizon inquiry set to be given statutory status with wider powers

  The government inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal is set to be made statutory with the power to call witnesses under oath and compel provision of evidence

• May 18, 2021 18 May'21

  Microsoft EU Data Boundary dubbed ‘smoke and mirrors’

  Data protection experts claim Microsoft’s decision to create an EU Data Boundary is a tacit admission that it routinely transfers and processes the personal data of European citizens outside the bloc

• May 18, 2021 18 May'21

  Government response to National Data Strategy consultation depicts data as ‘asset, not threat’

  Government responds to consultation with a promise of delivery, putting an emphasis on data as an asset, not a threat, and finding respondents keen on levelling up